Water and Coastal Resources
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USAID worked with local partners to improve water resources management in Moroccos Nakhla region of the Rif mountains.
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Every ecosystem, society, and individual on Earth depends on water. Food security
and human health, energy supplies and industrial production
are all dependent on water to a large degree. Water plays
an important role in regulating global climate. It is
essential for plants and wildlife and ecosystems they
inhabit. Water shortages and poor water management can
lead to loss of biodiversity and agricultural production,
increase in malnutrition and disease, reduced economic
growth, social instability, and conflict.
Reliable water supply has been a fundamental component
of the increased agricultural productivity achieved by
the green revolution. Irrigated agriculture currently
uses 70 percent of the worlds developed water supplies.
With increasing competition for water to meet domestic
and industrial needs, and for servicing essential
ecosystems, agriculture is faced with producing more
food with less water.
Water resources are not distributed uniformly across the
globe — nor are they necessarily located where the
largest concentrations of people reside. Demand for water
outstrips supply in a growing number of countries, and
the quality of that supply is rapidly declining. 450 million
people in 31 countries already face serious shortages
of water. These shortages occur almost exclusively in
developing countries, which are ill-equipped to adopt
the policy and technology measures needed to address the
crisis. By the year 2025, one-third of the worlds
population is expected to face severe and chronic water
shortages.
Exacerbating the problem, human activities often contaminate
the worlds limited freshwater resources, making
them unavailable for further human use and threatening
the health of the lake, river, and wetland ecosystems
they support. Likewise, coastal and ocean systems are
under threat from the impact of a broad range of human
activities. Coastal systems are particularly vulnerable
to degradation from land-based activities, climate change,
over-fishing, and damage to coral reefs, and they require
active intervention to ensure their continued survival.
The U.S. Agency for International Development has made
the preservation and environmentally sound development
of the worlds water resources a top priority.
The Agencys investments have helped improve access
to safe and adequate water supply and sanitation, improve
irrigation technology, enhance natural environments,
and develop better institutional capacity for water
resources management in countries around the world.
This has supported the Agencys underlying goals
of reducing conflict and improving the welfare of people
across the globe.
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